JUDAS ULLULAQ (1937-1999), UQSUQTUUQ (GJOA HAVEN)

Shaman Riding a Spirit,c. 1990

whalebone, antler, and stone, 18 x 17 x 9.75 in (45.7 x 43.2 x 24.8 cm)

signed, "ᐅᓗᓚ".

Provenance

Innuit Gallery of Eskimo Art, Toronto;

Acquired from the above by the present Private Collection, Toronto.

The great Kitikmeot sculptors Karoo Ashevak, Judas Ullulaq, Charlie Ugyuk, Nick Sikkuark, and their peers were all greatly influenced and inspired by the original shapes and textures of whale bone, which is probably the most naturally evocative carving material in the world. This particular piece of bone – probably a section of skull – inspired Ullulaq to create one of his most impressive compositions.

Some viewers might interpret this work as some sort of a “Spirit and Child” image, but we are inclined to read the “child” in this work as a shaman riding a giant spirit or helping spirit. We suggest that Ullulaq cleverly appropriated the mother-and-child motif just as Karoo Ashevak did in his famous The Coming and Going of the Shaman c. 1973 (illustrated in Hessel, Inuit Art, p. 112 and elsewhere). This truly awe-inspiring image of a powerful spirit, and the shaman who summoned it but can’t seem to be able to control it (even though he is armed with a knife!) is classic Ullulaq in that it combines angst (an extra large helping this time) with humour. We are certain that the hapless shaman had no clue that he would be unleashing such a juggernaut. We wish him the best of luck!

This sculpture might be thematically related to Ullulaq’s Shaman with Spirit Helpers Seeking Caribou, formerly in the Zepp-Varga Collection (see Marion Scott Gallery, Vision and Form, pp. 69-70) - although in the Zepp-Varga example the power dynamic is reversed, with the shaman being the large bone figure. Probably because of the unique shapes of the whale bones and the way Ullulaq utilized them, these sculptures also remind us of the powerful shaman pieces by the Taloyoak artist Eli Inukpaluk.

Literature: For important whale bone works by Ullulaq see Marion Scott Gallery, Vision and Form: The Norman Zepp – Judith Varga Collection of Inuit Art (Vancouver, 2003), pp. 69-70; Ingo Hessel, Inuit Art: An Introduction (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1998), p. 184; the section on the artist in Darlene Coward Wight, Art & Expression of the Netsilik (Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2000), pp. 152-171; Marion Scott Gallery, Vital North: The Spirited Sculpture of the Kitikmeot Inuit (Vancouver, 1996), figs. 22-23. For whale bone shaman pieces by Eli Inukpaluk see Ingo Hessel, Arctic Spirit: Inuit Art from the Albrecht Collection at the Heard Museum (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre/Phoenix: Heard Museum, 2006), pp. 206-207 and covers; Alistair Macduff and George M. Galpin, Lords of the Stone: An Anthology of Eskimo Sculpture (North Vancouver: Whitecap Books, 1982), p. 139; and Walker’s Auctions, Ottawa, Nov. 2016, Lot 85.